Andrew Flick

By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Behringer in front of the lab bench Megan Behringer joined Vanderbilt in 2020 and is currently an assistant professor of Biological Sciences with a secondary appointment to Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology. She serves as the associate director of the Vanderbilt Microbiome… Read More

By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator The DeSantis DREAM Lab represented the Evolutionary Studies Initiative this past Saturday at the Nashville Earth Day celebration at Centennial Park. The booth was a smashing success by all accounts. Associate professor of Biological Sciences and Earth and Environmental… Read More

By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Growing up in a small community has its advantages, but if you want to learn from world experts, you may have better luck in a big city. This is the case in the world of birds as well. Large populations of birds… Read More

By: Andy Flick Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator We congratulate all trainees who applied for grants this cycle regardless of the result. Putting together major grants is hard work and a feat in and of itself. So, for those that didn’t get funded, keep your heads up, we still think… Read More

By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator A team of researchers from the Eichman lab and associated with the Evolutionary Studies Initiative led a project that was recently published in mBio. Graduate student Noah Bradley and undergraduate student Katie Wahl (BA21, BCB) were co-first authors… Read More

By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator Evolutionary Studies Initiative researcher Eric Gamazon and his former postdoctoral researcher, Dan Zhou (now faculty at Zhejiang University), recently published new software and methodology for understanding the molecular basis of disease. They then applied their work to understanding the genetic… Read More

On Saturday, 3/26/22, a handful of members of the Evolutionary Studies Initiative took a field trip to Coon Creek Science Center (CCSC) to dig for fossils. It was a beautiful day where many trainees that have never studied paleontology got to get out and do some field work. Attendees… Read More

Jacob Steenwyk, a sixth-year doctoral student studying biology in the Rokas Lab, is a recipient of the 2022 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award presented by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Jacob Steenwyk He is the second Vanderbilt student ever to have received this honor, which recognizes… Read More

By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies Initiative scientific coordinator The Tate lab at MegaMicrobe 2019. Research conducted at Vanderbilt has been published in a new study in The American Naturalist that models how parasites interact to affect their host’s behavior. The results of the research, conducted by Faith… Read More

By: Dr. Andy Flick, scientific coordinator Evolutionary Studies Initiative  Big surprises can come from the smallest packages, for example, microbes. Assistant professors Drs. Megan Behringer and Benjamin Bratton have formed a collaboration to study the evolution of E. coli – funded by a pilot grant from the Evolutionary Studies Initiative… Read More